SuperDrive Conveyor Upgrade at Tarmac - Blashford Quarry

23rd January 2008

Canning Conveyor of Worksop, Nottinghamshire has recently been involved in a project at Blashford Quarry. operated by Tarmac South West, Blashford Quarry is located near Ringwood, New Forest, Hampshire and contains a substantial sand and gravel deposit with an underlying reserve of sand. The current processing plant comprises a barrel washer, sizing screens and open crushing circuit which is due for replacement in 2008.

Processed material is used in local Tarmac concrete plants and is also supplied to builders merchants and local contractors operating in the Ringwood and Bournemouth area.

Tarmac made the decision to upgrade the 2.5 kilometre conveyor system to harmonise the drives on the 14 conveyors and to increase the handling capacity from 150 to 350tph, with the additional benefits of improved reliability and reduced maintenance costs.

The project involved a staged upgrade of the conveyor system which commenced in January 2006 by extending the conveyor system at the face with a new 120m long x 750mm wide field conveyor.

Canning then split an existing C4 conveyor and interfaced a new 20m long elevated lattice section with walkway. This included an electrically operated 2-way chute at the end of this conveyor (new C4a); through which gravel can either be fed onto C4b to existing plant, or sand onto the two conveyors. This new section is powered by a ceramic lagged SuperDrive™ motorized drive drum, including Rulmeca jib discharge and high and low tension idler pulleys complete with internal sealed for life (IP67) roller bearings and included the installation of a polyurethane primary and a tungsten blade secondary belt scraper.

This was followed by the modification of an existing C4 horizontal conveyor which entailed a new 22m long x 750mm wide elevated transfer conveyor complete with a tail end loading section to make C4b. Driven by a 22Kw Canning SuperDrive™ motorized drive drum this is fitted with primary and secondary belt scrapers and an emergency stop pull wire system.

Canning then completed this section of the plant with the supply of a new 22m long troughed belt radial stockpile conveyor. Complete with walkway assembly and three sided head platform this radial conveyor is of lattice frame construction and is designed to accept up to 250tph from the feed conveyor C4a. Powered by a ceramic lagged 22Kw SuperDrive™ motorized drive drum the radial conveyor elevates at approximately 16° before discharging to a 5m high stockpile.

The third stage involved a complete retro-fit of Canning SuperDrive™ units to the whole of the existing conveyor system; ten ceramic lagged Canning SuperDrive™ motorized drive drums were supplied along with replacement jib discharge and high and low tension bend drums. Conveyor C9 was the recipient of two 22Kw double SuperDrive™ units due to the length of the conveyor and previous problems with belt slipping. New belt scrapers were supplied throughout the system as necessary, along with new heavy duty mesh guards where appropriate.

In a fourth and final stage Canning supplied 34 non-drive drums to complete the upgrade as the existing non-drive drums would not be capable of handling the upgrade to the system.

Some general refurbishment was also completed by Canning, in particular modifications to an existing blending plant which included greedy boards to three sides, full length walkway, access stairs, hoppers, support structure and ancillaries.

Throughout the project Canning Conveyor was responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of all stages. Gordon Tuck, Area Operations Manager, commented, "The team at Blashford worked extremely closely with Canning Conveyor on this phased upgrade project. We are delighted with the immediate benefits, and are confident that Blashford will enjoy significant energy efficiency, quality and reliability improvements going forward"

With completion of the whole system Tarmac will be well positioned to continue successful operations into the near future.